TN lawmakers' per diems may be frozen

Lawmakers chided after 2009 raise

Mar. 14, 2010

Written by

Chas Sisk

THE TENNESSEAN

State Sen. Lowe Finney

State Rep. Glen Casada

Lawmakers are opening a debate on their daily pay, with a pair of bills that would temporarily freeze increases.

State Sen. Lowe Finney, D-Jackson, and state Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, are working separately on bills that would temporarily lock per diem rates starting next year.

The bills come after legislators were criticized for accepting an increase in their expense payments last year despite a state worker pay freeze and after one lawmaker claimed more than $20,000 in daily pay in seven months.

Finney's bill would bar per diem increases for four years. Casada's measure would bar increases forever unless other state workers receive a raise of at least 1 percent. Both lawmakers say they plan to start to push their bills through the legislature this week.

"It just seems fair," said Casada, the chairman of the House Republican Caucus.

Lawmakers receive $185 a day, on top of an annual salary of $19,009. Legislators cover lodging, meals and other expenses out of their per diem pay, but the money also serves as supplemental income, with lawmakers receiving more if they spend additional time on state business.

Lawmakers also are reimbursed separately for mileage to and from the legislature and for some travel expenses related to their legislative duties. State representatives and senators received more than $3.1 million for per diems, mileage and travel expenses last year, a Tennessean analysis of state records found.

Both bills would temporarily end automatic increases in per diem pay. The state legislature came under fire in October when per diems were raised $14 a day under a law that ties the rate to the federal government's travel reimbursement rates. The increase came when state workers had been asked to accept no pay increases in the last three budgets.

The move also comes after Rep. Joe Carr, R-Lascassas, received $20,349 from January to July. The first-term lawmaker said in August he had been unaware that he had racked up so much in per diems and pledged not to accept any more in 2009. State records show that Carr carried out that promise.

Each bill would save the state $325,000 to $360,000 a year. Finney, the Senate Democratic Caucus chairman, said he plans to propose that the funds be used to pay unemployment benefits to the spouses of soldiers deployed overseas.

But lawmakers who live far from Nashville could be resistant to a freeze on per diem increases, because they incur more expenses traveling to and from the Capitol.

"I've talked to Republicans and Democrats that don't like it," said state Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, the House Democratic Caucus chairman.

"They think maybe we ought to weight it more (based on expenses). It seems to be the sentiment of the House that, if we're going to do something along these lines, we should look at everything."